The infection spread and doctors were forced to remove 35% of his skin, part of his bowel and infected muscle and fat.

Kian's condition was further complicated because he was born 12 weeks early and had fluid on his brain and cerebral palsy along the right side of his body. His mother, Nadine Slaven, was told by doctors to prepare for the worst.

But Kian astounded doctors at Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow with his recovery and will return home to his two brothers, Macaulay and Marshall, on Thursday.

The family recently moved from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute to Omagh in Northern Ireland.

Ms Slaven, 30, said she thought it was a "miracle" she was taking her son home.

"I have always said to any doctor from the start, even if it's heartbreaking to just be open and honest with me. They said to prepare myself. That's how serious it was. I came in to see him and I thought: that's not my child, because his hands were covered and his feet were covered. It was like someone had dipped him in a bath of acid.

"It won't sink in until we are all sitting down as a family again in the living room because really he shouldn't be here. He has had to fight off so many infections."

She added: "But Kian is back to his normal personality now. He just gets on with things. I don't know what it is with Kian but nothing fazes that boy."